Keep On Running
by Drawn To Those That Never Yawn
Summary: A short-tempered princess and the Doctor's second metacrisis in the TARDIS in an alternate universe. Hopefully, it'll all end well.
1. Beans are evil

**AN: Before anyone complains on the dialogue, it's because this is based on an RP. I didn't have enough time to splice the story to make it look right. There might be some verb tense changes, especially in the next chapters, mainly because we (me and Kris) are used to writing in different tenses. Also, this isn't your regular OC-companion Doctor Who story. With that said, allons-y!**

* * *

><p>Beatrice was positively beaming, despite all the crap she'd gone through the entire day. She was walking down the hallways of the girls' dorms, a mug of self-made custard in one hand and a spoonful of said food in her mouth. She counted the doors before she reached the one she wanted to enter, which was Eris Williams' - or Pond, from the news she'd heard - dorm. She knocked four times, then put another spoonful of the dessert in her mouth.<p>

"Arthur!" Eris shouts from her bedroom. "You should go get that."

"Tell Matt to do it!" he shouts back, and Eris faces her friend. He raises his hands in resignation and goes to open the door.

"Hi, I'm Matt Smith, and I'm assuming you're here to see my friend Eris who is currently too lazy to get —is that custard?" He looks at the cup the girl is holding with bright eyes.

The door opened, and Beatrice expected it to be the redhead, but instead was faced with a guy with floppy dark hair and non-existent eyebrows. Her mouth opens but no sound comes out for a moment. She swore the sound she heard was the sound of her head short-circuiting.

"I-uh… yeah, it's custard," she offered the mug, trying her best to regain her composure. "Want some?"

"'Want some?'" he repeats, smiling even wider. "I'd love it! I actually bought some fish fingers, and they should be here somewhere…" Matt opens the freezer and pulls out a box. "I know, it's kind of weird, but it's cool. Have you ever tried it before?"

Beatrice follows him into the room, slightly awed at how calm she was at the moment. The thoughts clouded her exterior senses, but still caught the question. "Oh yeah, Henri says it's disgusting, but I think the stuff's brilliant," she smiles (a genuine one, oh my gods), licking off the custard from the spoon.

"The Ponds don't like it either," Matt says with a grin. He cooks up the fish fingers and sets it on a plate on the kitchen table. "Take a seat."

Eris comes out of her room. "Hey, Beatrice," she greets upon seeing the girl. "Matt, not again?"

He only winks at her slyly, and she makes a face, going back inside her room.

"Call me when it's over!" she calls from the room.

"Anyway, can I have the custard now?" asks the boy.

Beatrice smiles at Eris' reaction (What the fuck, why am I so smiley tonight?) then looks back to the boy sitting down, a plate of fish fingers in front of them. "Here," she sets down the mug, then quickly takes a stick to dip in it.

Matt breaks a piece in half, dipping it into the custard and biting into it. "See? That's cool right there. Way cooler than my fez," he jokes.

She finishes off the first fish finger - do fish even have fingers? - and takes another one. "You have a fez?" she asks as she bites into her food. "You are too cool indeed," she giggles.

"Wait a moment," he says and stands up. He disappears into another room and reappears with a fez on his head. "Who da man?"

There are only a few moments in time where Beatrice stops and thinks I might like you. She grins then stands up. "Obviously," she takes the maroon hat from his head, ignoring his protests, and plops it onto hers. "I am da woman!" she exclaims, outstretching her arms.

"It looks good on you," he teases. He takes another fish finger, dips it into the custard, and licks the custard off before biting into the fish. "If I was back home, I'd say I should show you to my car. It's bigger on the inside." Matt grins at the blonde girl in front of him.

"Thanks," she almost blushes, but hides it along with her flustered face. "Really?" she puts her hands on her hips, raising her eyebrow. "How big, exactly, is your car?" then she crosses her arms on her chest, smirking then giving the strange teen a wink.

"Well," he muses, "outside it's kind of like a blue box. Oh, I just love the shade of blue it's got; the bluest of the blue. But inside! Inside it is like living in a mansion!" He makes lurid hand gestures to show his enthusiasm, and he doesn't remember the last time he's ever tried to impress a girl that wasn't Eris Pond.

"A… blue box?" both her eyebrows shoot up. "How do you drive it, exactly?" she grins, trying to imagine Matt driving a blue box to get from point A to B, and giggles. She nods as he describes the impossible blue box, avoiding the spastic, flailing limbs. She can't remember the last time someone actually put effort into helping her understand something.

"It's a small, uh, car, really. Think of a police box — actually, it is a police box. Besides, it takes a clever man to drive it, and fortunately, I am one," he adds with a smirk.

"Hm," she thinks, then remembers something like the car he drives. "Is your car like the TARDIS? Time and Relative Dimensions in Space?" _I__'__ll__be__surprised__if__it__weren__'__t. _She smirks, then puts her hand on top of a chair's backrest.

"Yeah, you caught me," he says. "I was hoping to shock you there, though. I like surprises." He sticks his tongue out at her.

"You might not be able to tell," she sticks her tongue out as well, because they are totally five years old. "But I have a British accent, and therefore am," she sits down on the chair. "And you are not British if you don't watch Doctor Who, so there," she takes off the fez and puts it back on Matt's head. "Get with the program, Doctor!" she says with a wink.

"English? Are you really? I never would have guessed," he says dryly, crossing his arms. "If I'm the Doctor, would you like to be my companion?" He fishes his pocket for a set of keys which he then dangles in front of her. "Frequent flyer privileges."

She chuckles at his joke, eyeing the tinkling chain of metal. "Totally would, but I should tell you," she fingers a key. "I hate paradoxes and too many twists in time, they make my head hurt," she wiggles her fingers for emphasis. "Too wibbly-wobbly."

He frowns, but then brightens up again as he says, "I bet I can change your mind, yeah? Fancy a time and place?" He laughs after. "I hope that was a good way of asking you out," he blurts out.

Arthur pops his head from Eris' room and eyes the pair with surprise. "Never knew she was your type, mate."

Matt shoos him off with elaborate hand movements. "Don't eavesdrop. Now bugger off."

Beatrice was speechless for the second time that day. _Matt __Smith __is __asking __me __out. __The. __Matt. __Smith. __Oh __my __Gallifrey_. "That definitely is a good way, anywhere in time and space," she gives him a fond grin. "You might just be able to, Doctor," she winks, then dabs a bit of custard on his nose.

"Oi, that's unfair," he exclaims, and dips a finger in the custard and swipes it across her cheek. "Now we match."

She opens her mouth in a surprised manner, including a gasp. "You call that matching?" She grins, then puts a streak of custard on the area of where his eyebrows were supposed to be. "Custard brows!" she laughed.

"You should see me on a full moon." He waggles his eyebrows, now dripping with custard. "I'm like a werewolf." Matt traces a line of custard on her forehead and adds a smiley face for good measure.

"A time-travelling alien and a werewolf," she gives him a flirty smile. "My, my, what has the Doctor been up to?" She couldn't keep out the purr from her voice even if she tried. She wiped the food from his cheek and sucked it off, then gave him an impish grin right after.

"A lot of things," he says, mirroring her actions. "Busy saving this universe and the next, all that." He grins and takes off his fez and puts it on Beatrice's head. "Keep it."

"Of course, having a ship that can travel through time and space has to have responsibilities," she inwardly frowns at the idea. "And I think I will keep it, thanks," she pats the top of the hat with her index finger.

"So," she exhales. "When's this so-called date you're proposing, Matt?" she cocks her head to the side, a half-smile on her face.

"I was thinking tomorrow night? Although I think it'd be romantic if I take you someplace with a little more flair? How about Venice in 1580?" He winks at her and smiles.

"Oh that'd be nice. I haven't visited Venice yet," she smiles. "Not even modern-day Venice," then she suddenly takes his hand. _God, __I __hope __this __is __real._

* * *

><p><strong>Disclaimer: Don't own Doctor Who, too timey-wimey.<strong>


	2. Venice, 1580

**AN: Okay, so maybe I didn't warn you about the ElevenII/OC thing, but I don't exactly proofread everything. Ah well, you'll get over it. Here's the first "episode" of Thompson Who, (Since the RP's name is Thompson High and the show's is Doctor Who and... yeah.) GERONIMO!**

* * *

><p>"Remember what I said about not having my car here?" She nods. "Rule 1: The Doctor lies." He takes her to the courtyard and sticks his key into what seemed to be thin air until the impossible blue box materialised before them. He opens the doors with a snap of her fingers and leads her in, dancing around the inside. "And this—" Matt gestures at the wide space. "—is my lovely car."<p>

"Oh my god," she looked back and forth from him to the TARDIS, open-mouth. "I didn't think… I thought you…" and for the third time of the day, Beatrice was speechless. Someone give this man an award, he's done something no one has done ever since I was in preschool.

"You thought I was what?" he asked, confusion spreading across his features which was soon followed by a huge smile on his face. "1580 it is, yeah? I can always do refunds."

_Oh __nothing, __I __just __thought __you __were __Matt __Smith, __actor __and __hipster extraordinaire. __Not __the __actual __Doctor!_ She gave him a pointed look, and sometimes she wished he had mind-reading capabilities. "Refund? Why would I want a refund to probably one of the more exciting trips on my life?" she gave him an 'are-you-serious-right-now' look, and pulled the door open.

"It wouldn't probably suit your taste," he suggests and runs to the console. He types in a couple of words into his computer and pulls a lever. The ground shakes beneath him and the familiar sound of vworp vworp vworp filled the air before he shouts, "GERONIMO!"

"Oh, trust me, I can blend pretty much anywhere," she leaned on the metal handle bars as the ship started to shake mightily. She knew when she heard the sound, they weren't in Thompson High anymore.

When the ground stopped vibrating, she loosened her hold on the bar. "Environment checks!" Matt - or is it the Doctor? - said, rubbing his hands together then flipping a few knobs and switches.

"_This __is __definitely __the __best __birthday __present __ever.__"_ She didn't realize she'd actually said the thought out loud.

"It's your birthday?" He turns away from the monitor to look at the blonde girl. "Happy birthday!" He chuckles slightly. "And I think I forgot to ask your name. My bad," he adds a little sheepishly.

"Nah, my birthday was a week ago, 10 days, I think," she waved off the fact as if it were nothing. "I'm used to people not remembering it," she gave him a tight-lipped smile, obviously uncomfortable with the topic.

"And you didn't, but I did tell you my name," she gave him a coy smile, leaning again on the bars. "But it's Beatrice Beaufort, if you don't remember."

He flushes slightly. "Beatrice," he repeats, rolling her name off his tongue. "Pretty name, that. I'll be sure to remember it if this ends well." He extends a hand toward her. "Shall we?" She takes it and he leads her outside the TARDIS, and they face the slow flowing of the Venetian Canal.

She took a whiff of the old Venetian air, trying to get a grip on things._ I __am __here. __In __Venice. __In __the __year __1580. __With __a __man __calling __himself __the __Doctor. __I __have __no __idea __what __the __hell __I __drank __or __snorted __last __night __but __oh __my __god, __I __need __more __of __that __when __this __is __over. _"It really is a box that travels through time and space," she says quietly, as she follows the hyper boy to where he was going.

"I didn't think you'd be much impressed if it just travelled through space," Matt says as he jumps up on the railing blocking the road from the canal. "So! Where do you want to head first, hmm? A gondola ride?"

"To be honest," she crossed her arms. "I'd still be impressed if your ship could only travel through space. You can't just hop on a jet and in a tick you're in Japan or something," she shrugged, then watched as he leapt on top of the barrier. "You might fall, you know," she raised her eyebrow, then leaned on it. She looked out and saw two lines of veiled girls, lead by a regally dressed woman, a few guards beside them.

He smiles. "I'm just glad I exceeded your expectations," he replies. The procession, as he preferred to call it, caught his attention. "Looks odd, doesn't it? Well, you know what I do with odd things. Let's go poke it with a stick, shall we?" He takes her hand and follows the girls.

"I didn't know you wanted to impress me," she smiled at the implication, and follows him as they fly past the crowds, ignoring the protests of those that were blocking their way.

"You know," she starts, then dodges an arm. "I've watched some movies," dodge. "And usually when people cover their faces with veils- WILL YOU STOP MOVING PLEASE?" the gangly teen skidded to a stop, then turned to face her. "Thank you," she said curtly. "They're usually a. getting married, which is not the case, or b. creatures that can't go into sunlight, woo," she wiggled her fingers.

"Look at that," she pointed to the other side of the canal. There was a dark-skinned man who was breaking up the lines. She couldn't hear and see much, what with all the cloth involved, but there was hissing and dragging of bodies in it. "What can you make of that then?"

He blushes again, not bothering to reply to her first statement. A scuffle soon follows, and he tells the blonde girl, "It's definitely the second one. Stay here." He breaks into a run just as the veiled girls walk inside a castle-like structure. Or maybe it is a castle. It is the 16th century after all.

Matt — the Doctor — feels Beatrice's hand on his arm, telling him to keep put. "I thought I told you to stay where you were."

"Well if I wanted to get lost in the 16th century, never to return to my own time, I would do just that!" she raised her arms in exasperation. "Do you think I'd want to live here for the rest of my life, never able to see tequila and salt ever again?" she raised her eyebrow, then leaned to look at what was behind him. "Also, I have seen this episode of Doctor Who before, I'm sure you'll need me."

"Foreknowledge is dangerous," he warns with a grin, although he can never get quite used to the fact that he has a bloody series on the telly. "Right, so I'm guessing only girls are permitted inside the building. I'm most certainly not a girl, mind you, so you'll have to do it. Only problem is…" He makes a face. "You clothes. Too modern. You'll have to change."

"You should know!" she grins, poking his chest. "You're the one who plays Eleven in the series!" she raises her eyebrow in contemplation. "Unless it's like a ga-" she bites her tongue to keep the spoiler out.

Then she looked at him with an 'are-you-joking' look. "Oh god. Oh god. Are you bloody serious? I won't survive there, I'll get eaten alive!"

"I'm going to play myself in the series?" His eyebrows, or rather his lack of them, knit together in confusion. "Last time I checked, they were doing my last regeneration… A little inaccurately, I might add." He frowns and looks around for a solution to their current problem. Another girl is making her way to the castle with a man beside her. "I get it! They must be applying for something. I'll go with you to make it more convincing. Now we just have to change our clothes…"

Matt brings her to one of the nearest houses, using his sonic screwdriver to open the door. A pile of clothes lay conveniently on the table by a blazing fire, and he immediately sorts through them, throwing a dress at Beatrice.

"What do you think you're doing?" a man shouts at them from the door.

"Oh, hello, I'm the Doctor, this is Beatrice, mind if we borrow some of your clothes? Of course not; it's an emergency," he says to the man as he unbuttons his shirt and dons on the top he picked for himself.

She turns around to the man, showing him the psychic paper she'd swiped from Matt. "If this dratted thing is correct, I'm Beatrice Beaufort, Viscountess Severn of Gloucester, 13th to the throne, and if you do tell anyone about this," she made a line with her thumb to her neck. She turned around, not even wanting to see the man's reaction. _Ugh, __I __hate __doing __that._

She swiftly put it on ("Alex would have a field day!") and found a small bag where she put the clothes she'd taken off under the dress. She saw that her companion had already finished changing and took a shuddering breath. _Here __goes __everything._

"By the way," begins Matt, "can you tell us what that building over there is?"

The man looks at them strangely. "That, sir, is the house of Signora Calvierri, the city's patron."

"And what does she do, exactly?"

"She runs a school for girls. Fine school, that. I'll send my daughter, if I had one…" the man grumbles.

"Right, then. Come along, Beatrice. We've got to get you to school." He takes her hand and walks her over to the building.

The guards by the entrance open the door and announce their presence. The royally-dressed lady sits on a highly gilded chair with a man who appears to be her son standing next to her.

"Hello. My name is… Roberto, and this is my sister, Isabella. Our parents died a long time ago, and we were hoping that you could give Isabella here a better future," he addresses the woman, and raises the psychic paper which was in Beatrice's hand.

The woman nodded. Beatrice had to repress a shudder when the - although very good-looking - man beside who seemed to be Signora Calvierri started circling her, and looked at her with a possessive and feral look. The Doctor was starting to be pushed off to the door, and she was desperately trying not to shake in her boots.

"Do you like her?" the woman said, as the door clicked shut. She heard something like the sonic buzzing, but she figured it might just be in her head to comfort her.

"I do," the man said with a rough voice.

"Then we'd be delighted to accept you," the woman said with a smile. She gave an apprehensive smile back, then she was lead by the guard to the quarters. Even if she didn't turn around, she knew that the man's vampire teeth were bared, and she had to bite her tongue to keep herself from screaming.

* * *

><p>He shrugs off the guard that kept his hold on his body. "I think I can get myself out, thanks'" he snaps, and stops himself from shouting at the door to Beatrice, to tell her to not to worry. Now, to get her out…<p>

He waits for nightfall outside the building, trying not to fall into the canal with his spastic limbs high in the air, and slips past the guards, sonic-ing the backdoor open. He ends up inside a dark cave-like room with a mirror. "I must say, I am quite good-looking," he mutters as he inspects himself on the mirror.

"Who are you?" ringing voices of girls asked. He turns around to find the source of the voices and faces a group of girls, all deathly-pale.

"Oh, hello. I'm the Doctor," he introduces, then faces the mirror again, noticing the way they don't appear on the mirror. "Right. Vampires. This is bad, very bad." The girls begin to surround him, and he dashes off, stopping in the room he was in earlier, panting.

* * *

><p>She was lead off to some stairs by the guard, girls wearing white gowns watching her every move. It didn't take a supernatural expert to know that these were vampires, with their hissing and their pale skin.<p>

Then she was in a room, and the first thing she saw was a white night gown. _Nu-uh, __no __way __in __hell __am __I __wearing __that!_

"Clothes on the bed, get changed then wait here," the man said, and she bit her tongue to stop the retort about the curtain-like cloth and how she didn't want to be a dementor when she grew up. They probably wouldn't get the reference anyway.

The other girls with messy hair, except for the one sitting on the bed, exited, giving her sharp looks as they did so. Then she turned to the only other living - she hoped, as they didn't follow the events as in the episode - being in the room.

"Uh," she cleared her throat. "Hello, I'm… Isabella, what's your name?"

"A-Amy," the girl on the bed said nervously. The blonde heard the door close, then jumped at the opportunity for information.

"We need to get out of here, I'm sorry, but I need you to tell me what happened. What is this place? What are they doing?"

The girl, Amy, started talking, though shaky. "They, um, come at night, and circle around my bed. Then they-they bring me into this room with green light, and a chair. A chair with straps," she described it, looking at her with haunted green eyes.

"What goes on in there?" Beatrice asks.

"I don't know, I just wake up in here," she looks up at the dome littered with symbols. "And the sunlight burns my skin, like candlewax."

A distant bell tower starts dinging, and Beatrice starts looking around with more apprehension. _So __the __game __begins._

* * *

><p><em>Where <em>_could __she __be?_ he thinks to himself as he explores the rest of the castle. He enters a room, and he whips out his sonic screwdriver as an act of habit, lowering it down when the faint light illuminates a body lying in the dark. It was pale. Too pale and oddly light, as if all its bodily fluids were drained out of it. _And__it__probably__has_, he thinks grimly. He swears both of his hearts stop when he thinks that that's what they were going to do to Beatrice.

"Beatrice!" he shouts, and runs off to find her.

* * *

><p>Beatrice was walking the dark hallways with a small candlestick, not knowing where she really was. She knew, for one, that Amy was supposed to open a pothole for Rory and the Doctor to get in, and she was already in the room the pothole was supposed to be, she thanked the stars she worked out every once in a while that she could open the rusted lock. <em>Nothing <em>_left __but __to __get __caught. __This __is __just __brilliant._

Her breath was in white clouds when she examined her handiwork. She was in the room with no roof, the moonlight filtering out that made the surroundings eerie. She shuddered, _any __minute __now._

Though she'd already expected it, she gasped when she turned around to face the guard, and her candle went out.

When she could see again, she was being dragged into a room. _A __room __with __green __light_, her eyes widened in realization. She kicked and screamed, but the man wouldn't relent.

In the room were the girls, wild-eyed and messy-haired, all in a circle. Her breath caught in her throat when she saw the set up of the room. There was a bag of blood hanging from the ceiling, and the chair with straps underneath it.

She protested while she was put in it, but the only thing she got was a tightening on the straps. So tight that her blood could've been cut off. _Must__'__ve_. She bit her tongue as the girls filed out of the room, and all that was left what the guard, the woman, and her son.

"Well, well, well, look at what we've got here," Signora Calvierri said, circling her, watching her with vulture-like eyes. She didn't have the time to react when two teeth suddenly sunk into her neck.

"_**DOCTOR!**_"

* * *

><p>When she awoke, her vision was fuzzy. She could hear two voices, but they were barely registered. She could feel pain on her neck, but again, it was faint and felt far away.<p>

"First," the Signora said. "We drink you 'til you're dry," she looked up. "Then, we fill you with our blood."

"Rages through you like a fire, changing you. Until one morning you awake, and your humanity is a dream, now faded."

"Or you die," the man beside her said with a chuckle.

Beatrice's tongue felt heavy and dry, but she had to ask. "And if I survive?"

"Ten thousand husbands waiting for you in the water," Signora said with a wistful tone, looking at her with a look of almost-adoration.

"Sorry," Beatrice began the retort, and had to blink twice to know where she was kicking. "But I don't do marriage," and kicked.

Suddenly the woman's form changed, but they all heard noise in the distance. The other three left the room in a flash. The royal was left with cold blood and adrenaline surging through her.

_Help._

* * *

><p>Matt hears Beatrice scream, the sound echoing in the stone halls of the castle. He follows the sound until he runs into Signora Calvierri and her son. "Oh, hello. Captured my friend now, did you?" He looks behind him, and the girls, those deathly pale girls, surround him from behind.<p>

"His rescue plan — not exactly water-tight, is it?" she remarks dryly. He ignores her remark, whips out his torch, making the girls cower and hide back into shade, and runs to find Beatrice. He finds her strapped to a chair in a room lit green. "Are you okay?" he asks her as he removes the straps with his sonic screwdriver. "Not too late yet, am I?"

"No, not very much," she replied, extremely relieved. Once the straps were removed, she had to make fists to get the blood flowing again.

"Okay, aliens, not vampires. Why can't I remember that?" she shook her head, and followed as the Doctor found his way through the labyrinth of passageways. She thanked the high heavens that she wasn't turned yet, as she looked back at the girls straining to survive under the harsh sunlight.

_Thank __god __I __don__'__t __tan_. She thought, looking at her arms. Matt, in his tall and gangly glory, walked down the steps to the canal, looking for a gondola.

"So," she started, crossing her arms as if the latest encounter she's had with the science-fictional was a dream. "What happens now?"

"You have to get to safety and get some rest. Try to find the bloke who lent us the clothes, yeah?" She nods, but then looks at him expectantly with crossed arms. "I'm going to have a little chat with Signora Calvierri," he adds, a little grimly. A gondola slows to a stop in front of the pair, and he leads her to it, waving her off from where he stands.

He heads back inside the castle through the entrance he took a while back, walks into the throne room, and sits on the gilded chair as he waits for Signora Calvierri.

She saunters inside, not paying mind to the man seated on her throne.

"Long way from Saturnyne, aren't you?" the Doctor asks her casually. He doesn't know why he didn't realise it sooner, but when Beatrice said they were aliens, everything clicked. "Sister of the water."

"Let me guess," she says, smiling slightly at him. "The owner of the psychic paper." He doesn't answer her question, but instead raises his hands. "Then I take it you're a refugee like me." She sounded slightly hopeful.

Matt leans back into the chair then tells her, "I'll make you a deal: an answer for an answer." She cocks her head and begins to pace the room in small, measured steps, keeping her gaze on the doctor. "You're using a perception filter," he continues.

"It doesn't change your appearance, but manipulates the brainwaves of the person looking at you." Her expression changes as she hears his words. Her smiles lowers into a frown. "I've seen one of you for the first time in, say, a mirror. Brain doesn't know what to fill the gap with, so leaves it blank." A chuckle escapes his lips. "Hence no reflection."

"Your question?" Signora Calvierri prompts, sounding a little bit scared of the Doctor.

His mouth stretches into a grin. "Why can we see your big teeth?"

She breaks into a laugh. "Self-preservation overrides the mirage. The subconscious perceives a threat and tries to alert the conscious brain," she explains. He opens his mouth to ask another question, but she cuts him off. "My turn. Where are you from?"

"Gallifrey."

Signora Calvierri eyes the Doctor with wonder in her features. "You should be in a museum," she almost purrs. "Or in a mausoleum," she adds with amusement.

He chuckles again before asking, "Why are you here?"

"We ran from the Silence," she answers simply. "Why are you here?"

"First date," he says quickly. "The Silence?"

"There were cracks — some were tiny, some were as big as the sky. Through some we saw worlds and people, and through others we saw silence and the end of all things." Her voice dropped to a more melancholy tone as she explained further. "We fled to a nation like ours, and the cracks snapped shut behind us." She raises her eyes to meet Matt's, then says, "Saturnyne was lost."

He returns her gaze with a slight question in his eyes. "So Earth is to become Saturnyne mark two," he says slowly, as if the idea was so brand new to him.

"And you can help me." He waits for her to continue. "We could build a new society here as others have," she tells him, smiling so widely that her brilliant white teeth show. "What do you say?"

He doesn't say anything, but rather stands up from the chair and walks toward her. She looks at him, not knowing what he'll do. "I need an answer, Doctor. A partnership. Any which way you choose."

His voice drops to a whisper. "I don't think that's such a good idea, do you? I'm a Time Lord. You're a big fish. Think of the children."

She tears her gaze — and her body — away from his. "Carlo!" she calls. Guards begin entering the room as she tells him, "You're right. We're nothing alike. I will bend the heavens to save my race while you — philosophy," condescendingly.

"Since today," he growls, "I will tear the house of Calvierri stone by stone." Carlo takes hold of Matt's clothes. "Get your hands off me, Carlo," the Doctor orders as he swats the other's hands away. He then walks away, shutting the heavy wooden door behind him.

She was sitting hunched over the table, a puzzled look on her face. _Oh __screw __etiquette __class, __I__'__ve __got __a __mad__lady __who __wants __me __to __turn __into __a __fish-person! _

Then she heard the harsh crashing of the waves to the docks, and she worried for Matt's sake, and everyone in this city's. The man who introduced himself to her as Roberto entered the house, then started stretching.

"Waves have been too frisky today, can't get through a canal without getting them wet," he said more to himself. She looked at him.

"What do you mean by frisky?"

"Sometimes it starts bubbling, and there was one time where my boat was almost bitten, I checked the hull," he frowned in worry. She noticed the barrels beside the window.

"What's inside that?" she asked, poking the wood with a finger.

"Gunpowder, sometimes life gets so hard that we have to earn elsewhere," Beatrice wiped her finger on her jacket. No wonder it smelled.

She returned to looking at the ferocious-looking waves out the window, then rubbed her hands. _Please __be __okay._

Matt breaks into a run outside of the Calvierri house. He retraces his steps until he reaches the small house of the man he borrowed clothes from and opens the door, finding both Beatrice and the man seated on the wooden table that was previously occupied by his laundry. Two small, dark circles lay on the nape of Beatrice's neck, and he leans over her, pointing the sonic screwdriver at her bitemarks until they disappear. "You're fine," he tells her, judging from the readings on his screwdriver. "And hello, I'm the Doctor. I stole your clothes, my bad. I'll return them sooner or later. Who are you?"

"Roberto," the man replies, still eyeing him warily.

He begins to pace the room. "Think, brain, think! Okay, so her home planet gets shut down by the cracks, she seals off Venice, and starts turning girls into creatures like her to start a gene pool. She said she'd bend the heavens to save her race — now what could that possibly mean? They come from the sea, so they can't live forever on land, so what are you going to do?" he says, more to himself than to the others. He then halts to a stop, looking at both Beatrice and Roberto. "She's going to sink Venice."

"She — she's going to sink Venice?" Roberto asks disbelievingly.

"And repopulate it with the girls she's transformed," continues the Doctor. "But for that, you need, well, males."

Beatrice grimaced when Matt said the last word. Ten thousand husbands waiting for you in the water. She shuddered involuntarily, her breath turning into fog in the room.

"That woman," she cleared her throat. "Signora Calvierri, said that I could choose from ten thousand husbands in the water," All looking like that ugly thing? I think not.

"Of course!" he exclaims, and takes a seat between the two. "Only her male offspring survive the journey, and they're all lying in the canals waiting for mum to give them some sort of girlfriend." Matt makes a face. "I've been around a bit, but that's — that's just — ugh."

The floor above them makes a rumbling sort of noise, and he faces Roberto. "Do you have anybody living upstairs?" he asks.

Roberto shakes his head. Matt jumps up from his seat. "I knew it!" he exclaims, but his face falls when he hears glass break and Signora Calvierri's girls enter through the window. "Run!"

They run out of the house, but Roberto closes the door before he gets the chance to escape. "What are you doing?" he shouts at the door, knocking on it with open palms.

Before she could turn back, Beatrice heard an explosion and was sent dashing into nooks and crannies of old Venice.

She was running out into the streets, blonde hair flying as she swept past panicking villagers. She had ducked and avoided many obstacles, feeling extremely like a secret agent on the run as she twisted and turned.

Then she encountered someone familiar, a man in an elaborate violet coat. She shrieked when he swooped down in front of her, sharp teeth bared and eyes a violent red.

"Isabella!" she heard someone shout, and then suddenly she was pushed out of the way by someone with a head of brunette hair.

"Amy!" Beatrice said, breathless. The aforementioned was fighting off the man and also the sunlight.

"Quick! Use the sunlight to kill him!" the brunette shouted, as Beatrice ran higher up the stairs, rummaging in her pockets for a mirror.

"What about you?" the blonde shouted back.

"Don't worry about me!" and that was all it took for her to put the mirror into the path of the rays, and soon the two aliens disintegrated into ash.

She thought a tear rolled down her cheek, when she pressed her hand on it. The blonde looked up, and saw what seemed to be storm clouds scattering into the sky. _No __tears __for __today, __it __seems._

When Matt catches up to Beatrice, he tells her, "It's starting." He grabs her hand, and they run back to the castle, storming inside the throne room. He fiddles with the silk padding of the chair, and it opens to reveal a mash of buttons and switches.

"Such determination," said Signora Calvierri's cold voice behind them. He turns around to face her. "All this for one city. Hard to believe this is from the same man that let an entire race burn." She looks up to him with a grin, and Matt makes motions for Beatrice to hide. "Now you can watch as we take over our new kingdom."

"Your girls are gone," he says pointedly, and she retaliates, "You're lying." She exits the room, leaving Matt shouting after, "Help me, Rosanna! There are 200,000 people in this city!"

"So save them," she snaps.

He turns his attention back to the throne. "Right, so how do we stop this thing, hmm?"

"Well," she stops when they're both thrown to the ground by an earthquake, but they quickly get back up again. "This thing here," she gestures wildly at the blue and blinking throne, "looks like some sort of remote control device," she looks at him with raised eyebrows.

"I'm assuming that if we tear either this thing or its connections to the generator up top," she points to the ceiling, as Matt sonics the throne. "It can… switch off?"

He hides the sonic screwdriver inside his jacket pocket and hugs Beatrice. "You, my dear, are clever! I'll just climb up the top and switch it off. Problem solved! Stay right here. I'll be back in a minute," he tells her and sets off to the top of the building, trying not to scream at the chiming of the bells. Matt grips the rope of the bell tightly. "Shut up!" he growls at the bell.

He then tries to climb the side of the turret, loses his footing, and almost slips off. "Okay, more than a minute," he amends. He finally reaches the top and faces a golden sphere which he then pulls open. Shifting and rotating gears stare him in the face, and his fingers fly around the device trying to find the switch. He finally finds it in tucked away in one of the gears. "Ah, that's better," he remarks, and begins his way down as the storm clouds dissipate from the sky.

Beatrice was still in the throne room by the time he returned, and he reached out to give her another hug. "You did it!"

When he lets go, she tries her best to keep her blush down. It was just a hug. Just. A. Hug. "No, we did it," she smiled at him. He started looking around suddenly, as if he had forgotten something.

"Did you leave some stove on or something…?" She looked up at him with a puzzled look.

He ignores the blonde, and shouts, "Rosanna!" as he exits the room and heads for the only entrance of the castle to the canal. "Rosanna!"

Signora Calvierri merely smiles serenely at him. She's stripped down to her undergarments, ready to jump into the water. "Can your conscience live with the death of another race? Remember us. Dream about us," she says, before jumping in and letting her body be engulfed by the bubbles.

"No!" he shouts, hand almost reaching into the water to pull her out. "Rosanna!" Beatrice finally catches up to Matt, and she kneels down beside him. "They're gone," he says quietly.

She looks away, as if she had been intruding on a private moment. Until he stood up, and dusted off his elbows and knees, her following suit.

"This was definitely a… nice first date," she said to break the silence, and then turns around and walks back into the castle to exit. "Well, are you coming?"

"Really? I thought the fish out of space ruined the whole thing," he says wryly, chuckling. "So does that mean there'll be a second date?" They walk back to the TARDIS, where Matt changes the settings, and they leave Venice with a vworp vworp vworp.

"It's to be expected when you go to Venice in this beaut," she says, as she strokes the TARDIS' console. She wasn't sure, but she felt like the TARDIS was purring?

"Oh, definitely," she grins, and dusts off her clothes. "Trust me when I say this date is better than all of the previous ones I've experienced," then she leans and kisses him on the cheek.

His smile widens into a grin. They reach Thompson exactly one minute after they've left, and he helps her out of the TARDIS. "Really? I look forward to our next one, then," he says.

"As do I," she smiles, and walks away from the blue box. She stops when she realizes it was still in the afternoon. _Time __travel. __Gotta __love __it._ She throws back a grin at him, looks forwards, then starts jogging back to the girls' dorms.

* * *

><p><strong>Disclaimer: Don't own Doctor Who.<strong>


End file.
